It's What a Father Does
by Ridgecliff
Summary: This is a short story happening during the third book in the series and it depicts Bran when he found out about Mercy's rape and his subsequent reaction.


**It's What a Father Does**

Bran opened his eyes suddenly and sat up in his bed. Through the window he saw it was still dark outside. Confused for a moment Bran tried to figure out what woke him.

"Something is wrong." He said to himself silently. Bran got out of bed trying to find the reason for the unease he felt. Just as he was about to dismiss his concern as overly paranoid reaction of a dominant wolf to a sound he probably registered while sleeping, his phone rang.

Sense of unease returning in full, Bran grabbed his phone knowing even without looking at the caller ID that it was his oldest son Samuel.

"Da?" Samuel asked as Bran answered the call.

"What's wrong?" Bran asked, steel in his voice.

"Da, it's Mercy." Samuel replied.

* * *

><p>Charles Cornick held the steering wheel of his truck in a steel grip leather cover creaking. He could feel the eyes of his mate Anna on him, sharing his anxiety as they hurried to his fathers house.<p>

Not even five minutes ago Charles was woken up by a sudden voice inside his head.

"Charles get to my house now, there's a situation." Bran's telepathic voice said. His father had the ability to project his voice inside his wolves heads. The message itself didn't concern him, his father often called for him when there was something that needed taking care of, but the tone his father used had him on the edge. Charles couldn't remember last time his father's voice sounded so angry and in pain at the same time.

Suddenly he felt a bit calmer and more relaxed. He realized it was the influence of his mate. Anna was an Omega, a rare type of werewolf that stands outside the pack structure and has the ability to calm other werewolves.

"I'm sure everything is alright." She said to him. Despite his worry Charles couldn't help but smile when he looked at her.

Soon he pulled in front of his fathers house, light shining from inside. As he got out of his truck he nearly fell as he felt his fathers power radiating from inside. It was so angry and powerful it made his knees buckle. Charles collected himself and ran to the entrance, Anna trailing behind him.

When he opened the door he was greeted by the sight of his father demolishing a wall. Entire house was a mess as Bran vented his rage. His fathers mate Leah stood on the side, in the doorway of her own rooms. Her arms crossed over her chest she was looking at his father with such condescension and arrogance that Charles knew immediately that whatever made his father angry Leah didn't approve of, but that didn't surprise him as she rarely approved of anything Bran did.

Just then Bran realized Charles and Anna arrived and stopped hitting the wall to look at them.

Charles noticed his fathers eyes were red like he was crying and his teeth were bared. He immediately lowered his eyes showing submission to his fathers dominance as he realized that whatever upset him had his father on the edge and he barely controlled his wolf.

"Da what happened?" He managed to ask finally.

Bran stood silently for a second, then took a couple of deep breaths and pressure of his power eased, and Charles knew that Bran managed to put himself under control once again.

"Samuel called me couple of minutes ago." Bran said "Mercy was attacked and raped in her garage by a human who stole some fae objects of power so he was able to compel her."

Leah snorted behind Bran "So you destroyed our house because of a sniveling coyote. God, Bran you really do overreact sometime because of unimportant things."

Next thing Charles saw was his father pinning Leah to the wall with his hand over her throat lifting her off the ground slightly. He glared at her until she lowered her eyes and then he whispered in a menacing voice "You may be my mate but do not overstep yourself. Mercedes is my daughter in every way that matters so be very careful how you talk about her in my presence." He released her and she apologized under her breath and retreated to her rooms slamming the door announcing her displeasure.

* * *

><p>Anna watched Leah slam her door and she sighed softly. She never liked Bran's mate. She was selfish, self centered and arrogant as she just proved.<p>

Anna turned to regard two wolves standing in silence anger radiating from both of them heating the room like a furnace.

She met Mercedes and she knew Charles regarded her as a little sister and loved her dearly and that the news of her attack made him furious.

"What happened Da?" She heard her mate ask his father.

Bran relayed the story to them of how Mercy was investigating a murder of a human guard at the fae reservation in order to prove the innocence of her friend Zee who was accused of murdering the guard. The real culprit was another human who with the help of stolen fae artifacts possessed certain powers, like increased strength ability to compel people and other stuff.

When Bran finished telling the story his phone rang again. Bran answered and Anna herd her mate's brother Samuel on the other line. With werewolves no phone call is private so she herd clearly when Samuel said to Bran. "Da, Mercy is currently unconscious sleeping of the Faerie potion she drank, Adam is still with the police but I had one of his wolves Ben send you the video of the events. I'll call back later to give you an update on Mercy." Samuel hung up after that presumably on his way to take care of Mercy.

"What video?" Anna asked.

Bran looked at her for a second. "Mercy's mate Adam is a CEO of a security company so he had installed cameras at her workplace so they recorded her entire attack."

Anna shivered and she felt Charles's hand around her comforting her.  
>"You don't have to watch it with us if you don't want to." Charles said. Anna knew he was trying to protect her as she was raped herself while she was still in her old pack, but she shook her head.<p>

"No. I'll watch."

Bran fetched his laptop and turned on the video and the three of them watched as Mercy was being force fed a fairie potion to make her more compliable and raped and how she fought and eventually killed her attacker with a crow bar. Anna herd both of the wolves growl in anger at the sight of Mercy's attacker. They watched as Adam in some half changed wolf form broke through the garage door and ripped into Mercy's rapist with abandon tearing him to pieces even though he was already dead.

"I knew I liked that boy" Bran said and Charles nodded in agreement and Anna couldn't help but agree, she liked Mercy and seeing her like that made her ache and seeing her attacker being ripped to shreds by an angry werewolf was more than gratifying.

"Will she be ok?" Anna asked quietly when the video was over.

"Mercy is strong." Charles said. "She'll get past this. Besides she has Adam and his pack as well as Samuel and us to lean onto."

"Yeah." Bran agreed. "But I'd much rather she didn't have to get past it at all."

* * *

><p>After two days Bran found himself standing in front of Adam's house, gathering courage to go and see his daughter. That's how he always thought of Mercy, as his daughter, even though she isn't his flesh and blood.<p>

Adam was currently in Washington with Charles as some anti-werewolf policeman edited the video of Mercy's rape showing only Adam ripping into Mercy's attacker to gather some anti-werewolf sympathies. Bran had every confidence that his son and Adam will deal with it.

Just as he was about to knock, door to the house opened and a teenage girl stood in the doorway. Her face was puffy and her eyes were red from all the crying and she had her pink colored hair tied in a ponytail.

"Hello, you must be Jesse, Adam's daughter" Bran said. Jesse just nodded. "I'm Bran Cornick may I come in?"

Jesse's eyes widened as she realized the Marrok stood in front of her. "Of course, sir. Mercy is in the upstairs bedroom." Jesse said.

Bran smiled at her. "Thank you Jesse. Is my son with her?" She just nodded.

As he climbed the stairs Bran noticed the house was full of other werewolves who respectfully lowered their heads as they watched him ascend the stairs.

Bran followed his nose to the room that had his son, Mercy and two other werewolves he recognized as Ben and Warren . They all lowered their eyes and bowed their heads as he entered.

Samuel smiled at him. "Hey da. She's sleeping currently but we can wake her if you want to talk to her."

"No." Bran said. "Let her sleep, she needs to regain her strength." He looked upon the sleeping form of a coyote curled up at the head of the big bed.

"Could you give me a moment alone with her please." Bran asked and the other three wolves lef the room quietly.

Bran sat next to Mercy and patted her coyote head, a tear escaping his eye.

"I'm sorry Mercy. I won't let anything like this happen to you again, my daughter. I'll protect you better." Then he added in a whisper to himself "It's what a father does."


End file.
